Mama with week-old chicks adopting day-old chick?

[miskyst]

I started incubating eggs last month and 2 hatched a week ago. A week after the incubation started one hen, Saffron, got broody (she has mothered chicks before) so we decided to let Saffron adopt them. We also gave her a couple of eggs just to keep her broody.
The adoption process was successful and all are happy. We took in the eggs in to the incubator. Yesterday one of the eggs hatched a sweet baby. Now the baby is one day old and the others are a week old. The day old isn't eating or drinking yet.
I tried to tuck this baby under Saffron this morning but (1) the baby would not move or walk (probably due to shock?) (2) when I showed Saffron the baby she pecked her (her reaction was nothing like seeing those other two).

 

[miskyst]

What should I do?

The last batch I hatched had a very lonely chick bacause all of its siblings didn't survive. It would chirp all night regardless of mirrors whatnot.

I also did not have success integrating that lonely chick into the flock. Poor chick gets bullied and tries to sneak out of the run, away from everybody else whenever he can.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You need to brood the last chick yourself, this is why staggered hatches generally won't work as most hens don't accept new chicks once they've bonded with their brood.

Unless you have more eggs set to hatch very soon getting some chicks from a feed store would be the best thing to do so this chick isn't alone.

Day old chicks don't need to eat right away. Because it's alone it's best you encourage it to eat and drink by acting in the hen's role (pecking at food and water with a finger).